Candy or medicine: keep your children safe

PHOENIX — With Halloween right around the corner children cannot wait to get their hands on candy, which is why a Valley non-profit is reminding parents to keep their medications and pills extra secure this month.

“If they are looking to grab a quick handful of candy and pop it in their mouth, they are probably not going to be checking it out to make sure it’s the right thing that they are ingesting,” Justin McBride, program manager at Drug Free Arizona said. “It could be candy or it could be a prescription medication that mom or dad left out on the counter.”

McBride said it is important for parents to realize that the shape, size and color of many medications look similar to popular sweets and young kids won’t know the difference.

“Parents just need to be aware of any colorful type of prescription or over the counter medication and it could be anything for any ailment but if it’s colorful, it’s bright, it looks fun kids are going to recognize that and they could easily confuse that for a candy or even chocolate if you have some ex-lax out there,” he said.

He suggests parents also talk to their children about the potential dangers of ingesting medicines they are not prescribed.